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Eye Candy Wiki:Manual of Style
The Eye Candy Wiki has a Manual of Style all articles are suggested to follow, as similarly-structured pages tend to look more organized than simply slapping information into an article. This way, routine is created and finding information regarding the subject(s) will be easier to find and more quickly to obtain. This article is not meant to cover the basics, just the flavor of how we format things on this Wiki. Wiki areas and namespaces This wiki is largely divided into different areas using namespaces. They help keep things organized and less confusing. Objective areas are for Wikipedic-style fact, whereas subjective areas are intended for opinion and discussion. 'Objective namespaces' 'Subjective namespaces' For Main namespace articles, discussion on how an article should be edited should be in the Talk section. Layout guide Most articles have a specific layout and format they should follow. Some elements are common to many articles, however. Common elements Headers Headers should follow the Wikipedia structure, as well as the article naming structure for this Wiki. In other words, only the first letter of the first word of a header title, and the proper nouns in a heading, are to be capitalized, with all other letters remaining lowercase. Infobox An infobox is a template that displays information in a labeled table box along the right-hand margin of the article and contains short-labeled data. Never should the infobox be the sole information source for any article, especially since not every user may be able to view it, as some may be mobile or using a screen reader. You can view a list of the infobox templates on the Templates page. Raised questions Some articles may contain small mysteries about the character in relation to the series, e.g. hints in the episode that a particular character could potentially be the Flirtual Killer. Footer Spoilers Spoilers are leaked pieces of information and must always come with references. Read them at your own risk. References References are links and text that have been seeded throughout the text and create footnotes. Uncommon elements Article names and significance Nearly all articles in the Main namespace are proper nouns or episode titles, and as such are inherently in "Title Case". All articles in the main namespace that are not proper nouns or episode titles (e.g. "Behind the scenes") should use sentence case. In sentence case, only the first letter of the first word of a title, and proper nouns in a heading, are to be capitalized, with all other letters remaining lowercase. Significance It's a fact of wiki: Not all pages that do exist should exist. Some of those articles are marked as stubs and always will be stubs because there's the sense that there's more to say about the topic than there actually is. Brief pages that provide only a few sentences with no valuable information aren't particularly helpful. Just because a character is named does not mean they should get a page. Characters, in particular, should only get pages if they have significance and/or relevance to plot or main characters. The deciding factor is whether they can reasonably be linked to by more than one page and whether those links are reciprocal. Character articles Whether a full article, redirect or a heading, a character's name should only be used as the page title. Do not include the occupation or honorific in the title. For example, Ben Miller should not be "Detective Ben Miller", and Lindy Sampson should not be "Hacker Lindy Sampson". The exceptions only come in when/if the character is not given a first name and naming the article by only the last name would be utterly confusing (e.g. Detective Pascal), as well as where protocol dictates otherwise; the rare articles of the first exception should be changed as soon as the characters first name has been revealed. For main and frequent recurring characters, a redirect from the first name to the full name ([[Sophia]] redirects to Sophia Preston) is permitted, though link use is discouraged (e.g. Connor is preferred over Connor). Perspective and tense Plot descriptions of episodes are always written in present tense, except when the description requires otherwise, with the audience having an omniscient point of view. This way, the episode reads as if the user is truly experiencing the events as they happen. This is the same for flashbacks. Character pages do not always require present tense, as they may need past tense. Character page : Lindy is a hacker working with NYPD to solve mysteries. : Lindy lectured her sister about her choice of friends. Episode page : Tommy asks Lindy for help. Never should phrases like "it is seen", "we see", "it was revealed in BRB", etc., as this breaks the fourth wall and does not reflect the omniscient point of view. When editing episodes that have already aired, it is important to not contaminate the plot information with events that happen in the future, such as by revealing who the Flirtual Killer is, as this corrupts the facts pertaining to the corresponding episode and spoils the mystery. Neutral point of view All articles are to be written with a neutral point of view (NPOV), meaning views, facts and other relevant types of information about the subject are represented fairly and without bias. This is an important principle when attempting to maintain an encyclopedic atmosphere. The easiest way to know whether something requires a neutral point of view is to determine whether the piece of information in question could have multiple opinions that need to be presented, but not asserted, fairly. All significant points of view are presented, as opposed to simply the most popular one, and the most popular view or an intermediate view should not be asserted to be correct. This does not, however, mean that the article cannot inform the reader which view was more popular to the characters—it simply means that the article should not assert that the most popular one is the correct one. Readers should be left to form their own opinions. Users should also try to avoid using weasel words, which some people will often use, thinking it avoids a non-neutral point of view. According to Wikipedia, weasel words are "words and phrases that, whilst communicating a vague or ambiguous claim, create an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said". An example of this would be saying, "Some people think Tommy is in love with Lindy." This still leaves readers with a generalization, as it is unknown who "some people" are and why they believed it. See this Wikipedia tutorial for more information about how to avoid weasel words. It is important to note that a neutral point of view is still a point of view, but it is one that neither agrees or disagrees with a particular claim, fact, or other relevant piece of information. Because of this, a neutral point of view should not be confused with a total lack of, or elimination of, point of view. Exceptions On episode pages, present and past tense may need to be mixed when referring to past events—this is acceptable, but if you cannot master present tense, it's best not to attempt it. Use of American English Though Eye Candy is an American series, not all of its fans or contributors may be, thus unfamiliar terms, spelling variants, punctuation variants, and grammar from all over the English-speaking world may be seen on this Wiki. These may be altered to terms more familiar to Americans. For example, "snog" is not used in the US, but "kissing" is, and will be changed accordingly for the broadest audience. Resources *Grammarist *Comparison of American and British English Important grammar and punctuation notes *Punctuation only goes inside the end of quotes when the person is saying something. : Unacceptable: To have Lindy flirt with Jake on Flirtual, Sophia pressed "Flirt." : Acceptable: To have Lindy flirt with Jake on Flirtual, Sophia pressed "Flirt". : Acceptable: "Don't ask," Lindy replies. *Spaces do not separate words from slashes, e.g. "on / off" is improper, whereas "on/off" is proper. *Spaces also do not separate words from dashes, unless in necessary circumstances, such as when listing a product that is nut- and dairy-free. If the product was only nut-free, it would be written "nut-free"—never "nut- free", "nut - free" or "nut -free". With long dashes, they should never be written as so: "life— and", "life —and". Media Media pertains to images, videos, sound and galleries. Licensing Users that upload media that they themselves did not directly create should strive to ensure that they have appropriate permission and/or license to do so. Believe it or not, just because it's on the Internet does not mean you can repost it here. Copyright lawyers can be a lot scarier than a serial killer. Use of material without attribution is absolutely discouraged, if not forbidden. Users found to be uploading media they lack permission to upload may suffer serious consequences from Wikia, as that is violating the Wikia Terms of Use. File naming When uploading or embedding a media file, it is good practice to name th file something significant so it can be easily found later Images Screen captures should use "Episode_name_##" and be added to the episode's category, (e.g. "01x01 Gallery"), where they will appear in alphabetical and numerical order. Character photos should use "Character_name_##", with names listed in order of left-to-right appearance, simply for convenience. After, their captions should display what episode the photo is from, if any, e.g. "YOLO".